Web Log Archives: October 20, 2002 - October 26, 2002
Saturday, October 26, 2002
The Indiana University student newspaper reports that a Shane's World video crew filmed scenes on campus in early October, including inside a dormitory. A followup article captures some responses from dorm residents:
Freshman Adam Brown said he saw the film crew and actors, which included a man in a bear suit, went into individual student rooms.
Freshman Danny Gothelf said the situation was awkward. "Being the age that we are, we're not going to go up to our head RA and say, 'Hey, there are porn stars in our bathroom,'" he said.
The Indianapolis Star picks up the story, quotes an angry IU dean and speculates on punishments that could be meted out to students involved in the shoot.
Soapboxgirls linked to this academic anti-porn article by a male writer who's sympathetic to the McKinnon-Dworkin view of pornography. The comments section for this item at Soapboxgirls has an interesting discussion (click on the link that says "discuss (# responses)" to pop up the comments window).
Liz Langley tries to talk her way into the tourist seat on the Russian space capsule, now that Lance Bass can't make it. "I don't know whether there have been any studies on sex in anti-gravity conditions, but I could initiate a few, which might make a pleasant sidebar to whatever else this mission is all about. This is particularly true if your space ship is stocked with the ingredients for Lemon Drops (ice-cold vodka, lemons, sugar) and a Spanish radio station." She also suggests some ways to liven up the space program. "First, change the name of the mission to 'Temptation Station' and provide attractive models to lure astronauts away from their duties with rum drinks and hot-tub parties. . . . Also, there is not nearly enough catty dialogue in space, so I suggest taping some segments of the astronauts saying bitchy things about each other that only the on-board microphones and all the people on earth would hear."
The success of Viagra has drastically reduced the international trade in wild animal body parts used in older erection-boosting treatments. Researchers found a sharp decline in the market for "Alaskan reindeer, which are hunted for antler velvet, hooded seals and harp seals, which are both hunted for their genitalia."
Lief Ueland browses the escort service message boards at bigdoggie.net and talks to some of the prostitutes and "hobbyists" who frequent the site.
The Cat at Walden Pond has been closely following the murder of Gwen Araujo, a 17-year-old transgendered girl (aka Eddie Araujo, a 17-year-old crossdressing boy, depending on which account you read), in suburban San Francisco. Three guys beat her up, strangled her and buried her in the woods after learning she was "really a man" at a party. Here's a good AP story about the case. TCaWP has links to more articles, responses from different people, information on memorial services and more.
Friday, October 25, 2002
Ice-T is following Snoop Dogg into the porn business with an upcoming hardcore feature called Ice-T’s Pimpin’ 101. It will be interesting to see how NBC, the Law and Order producers and media pundits respond. Have the boundaries between mainstream Hollywood and the porn industry really blurred so much that this will pass without mention? Or should we expect a flurry of handwringing, protest and pressure to kick Ice-T off Law and Order: SVU?
From the Washington Post: "When the U.S. Senate wouldn't allow a collection of nudes in an art show last year, Raymond Wiger didn't understand why. Wiger, whose work was in the show, saw plenty of nude art at buildings like the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress. So he wrote to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), then chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and whose office made the decision to reject the nudes, looking for an answer. The response was simple: no nudity or violent images allowed in the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda. . . . It was further confirmation for Wiger that public displays of nude artwork seemed to be in danger. Now Wiger has produced "Out of Context -- A View From the Hill," an exhibition at Zenith Gallery. A panel discussion tonight will address the issue of banning nudes in public places. A collaboration with New York photographer David Morgan, the show incorporates photos featuring nudes at public buildings and spaces around town." (Link snagged from Pursed Lips.)
Time columnist Joel Stein gives the Museum of Sex another humorous drubbing. "Academics ruin sex. They analyze it, explain it, deconstruct it, and by the time they're done, you wish they had stuck to talking about Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. So when the Museum of Sex opened in Manhattan, I shouldn't have been surprised that it was heavy on the museum and light on the sex. Maybe if it were called the Museum of Erotic History, I wouldn't have been as disappointed. But when I heard about the Museum of Sex, my mind shot right past museum and straight to the sex part. I think my past experiences at the end of the Hershey and Guinness factory tours had built unreasonable expectations." (Link snagged from Pursed Lips.)
Indiana University has ordered a freshman to stop posting fliers around campus announcing auditions for "female actresses/models to appear in the adult film 'Dorm Room Fantasies.'"
Christina Aguilera fights for her right to be slutty. "It's funny how society places such strict standards upon young blond females. We're supposed to play the clean-cut view the public wants of us. But I am not your little cookie-cutter virgin."
600 people attended a public hearing to debate sex education policies in Wake County, North Carolina, on Monday. The crowd included supporters of both abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education. After seven years of abstinence-only format, school administrators now "propose revising the abstinence-until-marriage curriculum in grades seven through nine to provide updated information about sexually transmitted diseases and the effectiveness of contraceptives, as well as adding discussions on diversity and tolerance," which has the local fundis up in arms. (Link snagged from World Sex News.)
Spencer Tunick is planning a Toronto photo shoot and hoping for 5000 volunteer nude models. This article has three photos from Tunick's 2001 Montreal photo shoot. Priceless quote from Tunick about his working methods: "When they're nude, people really want to listen to your instructions."
The Arab News, Saudi Arabia's first English-language daily, has a regular scripture-based advice column by Adil Salahi. One recent column addressed several sex-related questions, which Salahi answered with scholarly reference to Koran passages and Prophet sayings, sort of like an Islamic Dr. David Hager. Scrolling past the questions about the 13-year-old girl who wrongly prayed during her period (an honest mistake) and why polygamy is acceptable (because the Koran says so), we find this astonishing exchange.
Q. In one of your answers, you expressed your view that anal sex between man and wife is forbidden. However, Verse 223 of Surah 2 seems to permit whatever a man and wife wish to do. May I suggest that your view contradicts this verse, unless you are relying on a Hadith which I do not know. Please comment.
Salahi's answer cites Koran scripture and commentary to the effect that God indeed blesses sexual pleasure between man and wife, but only toward the goal of procreation. "Needless to say, anal sex does not fit in this context at all." He then cites two Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) on the subject:
A man came to the Prophet and asked him whether it was permissible to have sex with his wife from behind. The Prophet answered in the affirmative. As the man was on his way out, the Prophet called him back and said: “Consider what I have said: from behind, but in the front.” I suppose nothing could be clearer than this. In another Hadith, the Prophet mentions ten sinful actions that are tantamount to disbelief. One of these is “anal sexual intercourse with women.”
The first one sounds more like a dirty joke than scripture. I, for one, feel inspired to do my part in the struggle against Islamofascism this weekend. (Link snagged from Eros Blog.)
Italian restorers have unveiled two bare-breasted seventeenth-century sculptures designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, as part of a restoration project in the de Sylva chapel of the St. Isidore Church in Rome. Prudish religious authorities ordered the sculptures' torsos covered up with bronze "corsets" in the nineteenth century. Sound familiar? (Thanks, Jim) . . . UPDATE: This Ananova story has a good photo of one restored statue.
Thursday, October 24, 2002
Yves Saint Laurent is running this print ad for its M7 cologne in several fashion magazines starting today. Less adventurous magazines will be offered a penis-free version of the ad. (Link and image snagged from Uffish, who asks, "Why use a penis to sell cologne? Is it penis-scented cologne or something? I don't understand, but it sure is a nice picture.")
From the Charlotte Observer: "Charlotte-Mecklenburg public library director Robert Cannon apologized Tuesday for a sexually explicit reading at the publicly funded Novello Festival of Reading. N.C. native Jim Grimsley read a 15-page excerpt of his book 'Boulevard' last Wednesday at the Neighborhood Theatre, shortly after a speech by a children's author. The novel, Grimsley's fifth, tells the story of a young gay man who moves to late 1970s New Orleans and works in an adult bookstore. Though not the most graphic part of 'Boulevard,' the excerpt Grimsley read is R-rated and then some, with coarse language, references to homosexual sex and descriptions of items in the store."
Arizona State University has announced punishments for Brian Buck, the student who showered with pornstars during a campus porn video shoot for Shane's World #29. The university didn't expel or suspend Buck, but imposed an array of lesser sanctions. The punishments include the scary thought-police requirement that Buck compose four letters of apology (even if he rightly believes he has nothing to apologize for) and a 20-page essay of "reflections on integrity" (even though he's displayed far more integrity than the petty bureaucrats passing judgment on him).
Previous coverage.
From the Daze Reader mailbag:
Hello friend,
How do you do?
I'm male,30yrs,heterosexual,well built and of 5.8ft tall. I'm from the Igbo speaking(Anambra State) in Nigeria. I've a B.Sc in political science with a good command of English. I love reading,listening to good music and visiting countries when opportunies call.
I felt I should write you to access possibilities of a good relationship that could lead to a life one.Pleas, if you wish to explore this with me, kindly write me back or if you have a friend recommend if you are not disposed please do. I'm searching for a soul mate and it doesn't mater where she might be from so far she has a good heart. Please, you could include you data if you can. Expecting hearing from you.
Sincerely,
George.
Most of my fan mail from Nigeria offers large sums of money, but this guy just offers his heart. How touching. Alas I was not disposed to explore a relationship with George, and instead recommended the reverse cowgirl. OK, this has to be some new scam, but what's the angle?
Connor Young, editor of The Adult Webmaster trade webzine, reviews Hollywood depictions of the porn industry from Hardcore to Boogie Nights.
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Humorist and cultural critic Joe Queenan gives the Museum of Sex a laugh-out-loud panning in the Wall Street Journal. "The Museum of Sex is the one cultural institution in the U.S. that clearly did not give Frank Gehry a call before finalizing its design. With its white walls and unfinished floors and general air of coarseness, the Museum of Sex looks a lot like those high-school science fairs that are briefly mounted in gymnasiums everywhere, then abruptly torn down, to the relief of all concerned."
Molly Ivins rips recent Bush administration policies on sex education and women's health issues.
A Google search for "Vatican porn" brought up this interesting news item from September 2000: Vatican festival is mistakenly broadcast over Italian TV with porn-movie soundtracks.
Does the Vatican have the world's largest pornography collection? A while back, Daze linked to a Cecil Adams Straight Dope column digging into this longstanding rumor. The urban legend snoops at Snopes also look into the Vatican porn story. Both declare the legend untrue. Barbara Mikkelson at Snopes writes, "The Vatican museums have a few little things from the Renaissance and a couple of drawings by Michelangelo of some phallic fantasies, but that's about it. . . . Though the rumor about the Holy See's holdings is unfounded, it continues to spread, often vectored by those one would think would know better. Visitors to Copenhagen's Museum Erotica are routinely informed the Vatican Library holds the largest collection of erotica and pornography in the world. Camille Paglia and William F. Buckley, Jr. have also claimed this canard as fact in their writings."
The New Yorker covers a nude swimming and sunbathing controversy at a lakefront site called The Ledges outside Wilmington, Vermont. More information at the Friends of the Ledges website.
An off-Broadway musical version of Debbie Does Dallas, described here as "a cheerful, nudity-free retooling of the '70s hard-core classic," opens next week.
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
In her introduction to The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler maintains that "women secretly love to talk about their vaginas." Jaime Buerger tests this theory by convening six Las Vegas women for a vagina talk roundtable.
The Italian porn industry is protesting a steep new tax on pornography. Stars like Jessica Rizzo and Rocco Siffredi are threatening to organize street protests against the new tax.
New at The Onion: My novel addresses universal themes of humanity and has fucking.
Great LA Times op-ed piece (free registration required) by Jonathan Turley calling for the repeal of intrusive state sex laws. The US Supreme Court may soon hear the case of two Texas men convicted of sodomy when police broke into one's apartment and found the couple having sex.
The case could reverse a controversial 1986 Supreme Court decision that upheld the right of states to dictate the way citizens engage in consensual sex. Since then, 13 states have tried to regulate conduct in the bedroom, creating a type of morals police now found in those states and such like-minded jurisdictions as Iran. [...]
There may be no greater intrusion of Big Brother into private lives than the regulation of the way that adults make love. Yet the local morals police can rely on the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous 1986 decision upholding a Georgia law that prohibits a variety of sexual acts between any adults. Despite the fact that one study found that more than 75% of adult Americans reported that they engaged in such criminalized acts as oral sex, former Chief Justice Warren Burger cited "Judeo-Christian moral and ethical standards" and "millennia of moral teachings" in his concurring opinion.
Monday was the tenth anniversary of the publication of Madonna's SEX book.
Monday, October 21, 2002
Andrew Chang explores the retro burlesque craze at ABC News.
At first glance, the show may seem a throwback to the excesses of the old New York, when Times Square hosted seedy theaters and X-rated shops rather than chain stores and coffee shops. But look carefully at the naugahyde-and-chrome chairs and martini glasses around Marion's Continental, and you'll see it's a throwback to an even earlier era. The performers' smiles read more fun than sexy, and the audience is more vintage outfits and horn-rimmed glasses than lonely hearts or fat wallets. [...]
What's going on is something called the New Burlesque, or the Burlesque Revolution — a movement that involves plenty of live naked, or nearly naked — girls, but also a grass-roots effort to give new life to a long-dormant form of performance.
(Link snagged from SpyBabe, the daily lad mag.)
The Saratov Opera plans to stage Monica in the Kremlin by composer Vitali Okorokov during its 2003-04 season.
The resulting opera buffa is based on the life of the former presidential girlfriend — but just barely. Here's the story: The American president has been greatly compromised by a sex scandal (it sounds familiar thus far). The only way to save his reputation is to divert the public's attention to a similar scandal involving the Russian president, V. V. Krutin (in addition to calling the real-life Russian president to mind, the name is derived from krutoy, which means "being tough"). With this purpose in mind, the CIA sends Lewinsky to Russia, providing her with a love potion (her native charms being judged insufficient to the task, apparently).
Lewinsky — she's called Masha Levinsonova, the Russian equivalent of her name — makes the president's acquaintance in the elite club Judo and pours the portion into his glass. However, it is the director of the presidential security detail who drinks from the glass. He falls in love with Levinsonova and confesses his infatuation to the president. In the dramatic dénouement, the unruffled Krutin unmasks Levinsonova as a double agent and reveals that her seduction of the American president and the ensuing scandal was orchestrated by the Russian security service. Finally, he blesses the union of Levinsonova and the presidential guard.
From MTV News: "Scenes in Christina Aguilera's 'Dirrty' video contain images that are suggestive, sexy and downright lewd. One particular moment, however, advertises something that's simply illegal. Two posters seen in the video feature Thai script that translates to read 'Thailand's Sex Tourism' and 'Young Underage Girls' — references to Thailand's much-criticized, tourist-driven sex industry. The signs can be seen during Aguilera's boxing-ring sequence." Jeez, who's reading the posters in the background?
The Salt Lake Tribune talks to the editor of the Southern Utah U. student newspaper about the campus uproar that followed an article about condoms. For background, also read the scandal-causing condoms article and an earlier Tribune article about the controversy.
From CNN: "A condom that contains an anaesthetic to prolong lovemaking has smashed all sales records, its manufacturers [Durex] say. . . . Each condom contains a small amount of lubricant cream inside the tip, which disperses with body heat. The cream contains Benzocaine, a mild anaesthetic that de-sensitises the tip of the penis, so sex can last longer."
Dumbest streaker ever. "Streakers aren't necessarily all that uncommon, but people who knock themselves out on the ice in front of thousands of people at a hockey game, yeah, that's a little more rare." He recovered consciousness in time to wave the "duuuuuude" sign as paramedics wheeled him off the ice. More.
UPDATE: Another great photo of the streaker climbing over the glass.
Sunday, October 20, 2002
Scotty Crane, the son who runs a website featuring his dad's X-rated photos and videos, claims Auto Focus is full of lies about Bob Crane's life. "First off, they didn't even have penile implants in the 60s and 70s. In fact, silicone penile implants were not used before 1982 -- four years after Bob's death. And fat injection penile implants weren't used until the early 1990s. Secondly, if he had had penile implants or injections, this would have been noted in his autopsy report, which you can view on bobcrane.com." Elsewhere, Scotty undertakes a fisking-style point-by-point rebuttal of quotes from Paul Schrader about Bob Crane.
More on Auto Focus:
